Heinrich Windwart (July 12, 1810 - April 30, 1881) was a German civil servant, revolutionary, medical doctor, and map publisher. He was born in Bavaria and studied at the University of Jena. He was heavily involved in the German Revolutions of 1848. When the revolutions were suppressed, he went into exile, first in Switzerland, then France, and ultimately, in 1853, to the United States. He initially settled in Baltimore, but moved to New York in the 1860s when his fellow German 'Forty-Eighter,' Franz Sigel (1824 - 1902), was elected Registrar of New York City, and offered him a clerk position. Windwart was one of several map publishers, the most famous of whom was John Bute Holmes, who was able to leverage cartographic skill to capitalize on the New York City transition from grand 18th century estates to the meticulously gridded and plotted structure of the Commissioner's Plan.